Press Release

White Paper- HPC to regulate counsellors, health psychologists and psychotherapists

Wednesday 21 February 2007

The Health Professions Council (HPC) welcomes today’s White Paper on the future direction of the regulation of health professionals in the UK, which states that counsellors, health psychologists and psychotherapists are to be regulated by the HPC.

The HPC is an independent UK watchdog of health professionals set up to protect the public from rogue health practitioners. HPC already regulates 175,000 health professionals from 13 different occupations including paramedics, physiotherapists, chiropodists and dietitians.

HPC’s Chief Executive, Marc Seale, said: “The recommendations of ‘Trust, Assurance and Safety-The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st century’ are good for patients, good for the public and good for the professions. Expanding regulation to tens of thousands more health professionals will help the HPC to protect more members of the public and will increase people’s trust in counsellors, health psychologists and psychotherapists.

“Every day, people in the UK consult health professionals and it is important that they feel better protected by knowing their practitioners will have met our high standards. If health professionals drop below these standards the HPC can stop them from treating patients and prosecute those who pretend to be registered.”

Anna van der Gaag the President of the HPC said:

“The recommendations made in the Government’s White Paper have the full support of the HPC.  Without robust regulation the public is not protected from incompetent or unethical practitioners.

“Many consumer organisations and professionals have been lobbying for years to seek regulation for this large and important group of healthcare professionals.  We will now be able to enhance and extend the trust that already exists between these professionals and the public.  We will ensure proper standards of education, skills and professionalism.  When these standards are not achieved we will prevent those concerned from treating their clients and patients.

“The HPC will continue to work closely with the Departments of Health in the four home countries, consumer organisations, the professions and their professional bodies, to implement the decisions as soon as possible.”

Marc Seale added: “The report Trust, Assurance and Safety-The Regulation of Health Professionals in the 21st century has made numerous recommendations.  They are professional led solutions and they will enable the HPC to build on our achievements since we began in 2002.

In particular we welcome:

• The decision to extend our powers to enable us to continue to ensure that professionals are competent throughout their careers.
• The sensible and pragmatic decisions relating to the appointment and composition of the Regulators’ Councils.  Public involvement has been a cornerstone of our work and made a significant contribution to our success and all regulators will benefit from their equal participation.
• Extending regulation to other professional groups including healthcare scientists.

The work undertaken by everyone involved in the review of regulation over the last three years has been a challenging task.  By implementing the changes set out in the White Paper the HPC will ensure that our principles and procedures remain at the forefront of the regulation of healthcare professionals throughout the world.”